"based on the best available data, the model reached a sobering estimate: The shift toward vehicles with higher hoods caused about 3,000 deaths from 2016 to 2024. The estimate is conservative in many ways." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

“Since New York City introduced congestion pricing, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, & toll revenue projected to hit $500 million by the end of 2026. Now, Cornell researchers have tallied the environmental benefits.”

“You see, Jim O'Callaghan said, all of those EU limits on the police using AI were on the use of "biometric identification". But he had invented a unique new Irish activity called "biometric analysis" that didn't have any of those pesky protections” www.thegist.ie/the-gist-hum...

Today, while reviewing submissions to the AbSciCon 2026 Creative Writing Contest, I discovered a new tell for gen AI. Now, I had assume that gen AI, when asked to write fiction, would at least come up with unique character names. Turns out, I was wrong. Let me tell you about Eva Rostova

Under the council’s "5% policy", developers are delivering arts spaces – but who will pay for the fit-outs? The new four-storey Juno Building on Upper Sheriff Street is built, but it’ll cost millions to finish the interior so arts organisations can put it to use.

watched this on repeat losing my shit for two nights now

I'm currently working on an AI safety review and the extent to which "tech bro makes car, the wheels fall off" is an extended metaphor for the last decade is not to be under-estimated

Traffic cameras popping up everywhere Aren't police cameras It's a private co What's the purpose? www.pcmag.com/explainers/t...

A rough estimate of doing as much generative AI coding as the CEO of Nvidia recommends : an increase of 2.7x of the global annual emissions footprint for the average person By Boris Gamazaychikov www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

“Since New York City introduced congestion pricing, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, & toll revenue projected to hit $500 million by the end of 2026. Now, Cornell researchers have tallied the environmental benefits.”

Paris urban biking investment helps cut pollution in half: “Between 2005 and 2024, levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter — 2 of the most harmful pollutants to human health — have been slashed by 50% and 55%, respectively.” Via @momentummag.bsky.social momentummag.com/paris-proves...

Transportation historian Peter Norton doesn't buy into the robotaxi hullabaloo: "What robot cars are promising is the next generation of car dependency." In @bloomberg.com, my lengthy conversation with @norton.bsky.social

I may as well reshare it myself 😇

“It’s not data OR storytelling, it’s both. That philosophy is already visible in the Collective’s early output: bold and brash visuals and messaging designed for a scroll-heavy audience. The kind of work that doesn’t require a planning degree to understand, & doesn’t pretend the audience has one.”

Open source projects provide opportunities for people to build leadership skills while learning how to positively influence without the power that comes with more traditional managerial roles. Thank you to the crew at @allthingsopen.bsky.social for sharing my post! allthingsopen.org/articles/pow...

Noah Hawley wrote a short, excellent, and chilling piece about attending Jeff Bezos' Campfire "ideas" retreat in 2018, and you can read it through Flipster at the library if you don't have an Atlantic subscription. longreads.com/2026/04/21/j...

Parking shapes our streets more than most people realise. Today we’ve launched Ahead of the Kerb: a new report on the hidden costs of parking, and how we can use parking policy better to create people-first cities 👉 transform.scot/2026/04/21/h...

Wow missed this. “Norway reached 117% renewable electricity use in 2023, producing more than it consumes and exporting the surplus. “

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

Dublin City has no active travel projects under construction, putting rollout of 214km network by 2030 into further doubt irishcycle.com/2026/04/18/d...

The suggestion that Ireland should reverse the ban on drilling for oil and gas has popped up again. I made a programme looking at this from every imaginable angle. Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1... Spoiler alert: The arguments for drilling don’t add up.

“The reality is that we don’t have any food security in Ireland because the vast majority of what we consume is imported and the vast majority of what we produce is exported” – Emma Howard, economist, Technological University Dublin. Another excellent article by @codohertynews.bsky.social

We are not in the "AI era." We are in the "source: trust me, bro" era.

Attention #SpeirGorm - you probably have a "green bin". You'll notice it's not called a "recycling bin". The overwhelming majority of what's in that bin gets incinerated, not recycled. Yet more #GreenWashing for the benefit of the plastic packaging industry.

This 50 yr old woman spent 5 months in jail accused of a crime in a state she's never even been to, because Clearview AI misidentified her as the suspect. A judge signed off on it, cops went along with it, no process in place to even question the AI. www.cnn.com/2026/03/29/u...

Pretty radical design to convert a multi-storey carpark into 111 apartments in Staffordshire I’d estimate this would save around 30% embodied carbon compared to a new build! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Never forget, for many years Uber insisted it would reduce traffic in cities. Instead, Uber drivers cruise without passengers 40% of the time. Uber & Lyft no longer claim they reduce traffic. They now admit they increase congestion. Now boosters lie about driverless cars. Don’t believe them either.

1. Here’s a thread on #NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) and the challenges of change in cities: First off, although it might feel that way, NIMBY isn’t unique to your city, and it’s (probably) not worse in your city than anywhere else. It’s also not surprising, since it’s largely about human nature.

A viral dog rescue from 2016 is now immortalized with a statue in Kazakhstan. When a dog fell into the Sayran reservoir, bystanders formed a human chain to pull him to safety. The statue is a reminder of the value of unity, solidarity and collective action. 14/10 for all

According to the City of Paris, in the last 10 years 150K trees have been planted, and 45ha of parks created in the already hot city, all intended to not only improve quality-of-life today, but also help the city adapt to & manage summer heatwaves of 50℃ (122F) by 2050. Keep going with this, Paris.

Lie: Bike-lanes cause traffic congestion. Truth: Bike-lanes help solve traffic congestion. Lie: Bike-lanes hurt street shops if they replace parking. Truth: Bike-lanes help street shops more than street parking does. Lie: Bike-lanes cost us too much. Truth: Bike-lanes save us all public money.

Rewilding "only" 8% of Irish farmland would make a BIG difference to collapsing nature. Those 8% of farmers would be happy too, and it would cost the other 92% nothing. www.farmersjournal.ie/news/news/in...

When we think about the big differences between European and North American city-building, a primary turning point was the 1970s Energy Crisis. European cities and nations learned, and took their city-building, urban transportation, and renewable energy development in very different directions. 1/2

📣 New Research just published. Adoption of EVs, solar PV, and heat pumps in Ireland is driven by affluence. Current grants favour high-income groups, risking a "green divide." Policies must focus on equity and lower upfront costs. Open access: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

“…persons living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social capital compared with those living in car-oriented suburbs. Respondents living in walkable neighborhoods were more likely to know their neighbors, participate politically, trust others, and be socially engaged.”

WATCH: This is my favourite thing on the internet right now. Well done Norway! youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

Eliminating the Impossible xkcd.com/3210/

"Simon Harris had denounced the Deskerati as a shadowy force of people with terrifying horizontal wooden surfaces at their disposal, preventing him from bringing in facial recognition via CCTV." www.thegist.ie/the-gist-a-balancing-act/

‘. . . The rapidly growing field of computer vision is contributing to the legacy of surveillance technologies, technologies that have infringed on privacy, limited free expression, exacerbated disparities and created conditions facilitating abuse of power.’

A good example of how age verification techniques can backfire, leaving you open to security risks. My main issue with biometrics for online IDs is that *you can’t change them* if your identity is stolen. And you can’t change your PPS number either. #SpeirGorm www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

still unclear to me how the species made it this far

Privacy is a big deal for cars, especially electric cars. Many are worried about Chinese cars. What is worth remembering is that Western car manufacturers all fail on respecting user privacy www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/priv... #Privacy #EV

Ireland, Day 1056 of The Rain. Everything is saturated to the grey of the sky. Moss covers every surface. The outdoors sounds like constant static. The entire staff of Met Éireann is on mental health leave. I’ve forgotten what dry clothes feel like. It is still a yellow weather alert. #SpeirGorm

“A key driver of China’s AI momentum stems from its aggressive embrace of open models, a shift sparked by DeepSeek’s breakout success. Since then, Chinese AI labs have jumped on the open-model bandwagon.The turn to open models in China “has dramatically reduced costs for developers & enterprises,””

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured” www.reuters.com/investigatio...

“The climate scientists we surveyed were unambiguous: current economic models can’t capture what matters most – the cascading failures and compounding shocks that define climate risk in a warmer world – and could undermine the very foundations of economic growth.” This should be THE story everyday.

🇪🇺 The EU wants to boost open source with better funding and a new strategy, and they're looking for your feedback. Here's your chance to shape the future of EU tech policy. Share your opinion by February 3. Learn more.👇

This article is a very useful reframing of the tired “Europe falling behind in tech” whinge. Europe has actually build the foundations for socially useful tech, for decades. What it has not done is attempt to create Empires by extracting cash from that work. ploum.net/2026-01-22-w...

Charles Yang of Time for Three absolutely slaying me. I would lose my mind if I heard this live. Even crappy phone speakers made me scream and cry.